Dubai's Business Bay is fast running out of inventory

Central business district is has no land plots left to sell in master development

By

Parag Deulgaonkar

PublishedTuesday, October 09, 2012

Business Bay, the central business district in Dubai akin to New York's Manhattan, is buzzing with construction activity, once again.

“People have bought plots lately in the area, plots are trading in the market, plots are under construction, plots are in design phases and developers, who bought in the past and struggled, are in negotiations with investors,” Khalid Al Malik, Group Chief Executive Officer, DPG, told 'Emirates24|7'.

He revealed the company had no land plots left to sell in the master development, which covers 5.9 million square metres of area.

“We don’t have land to sell in Business Bay. We ran out of land in phase I and II... So all these indicate there is massive attention and demand on Business Bay.”

According to the master developer, demand has already picked up for projects in the northern portion of the Business Bay.

“Demand is very high. We are struggling in terms of inventory as we don’t have it whether residential, or retail.”

Although cautious, Al Malik believes demand for third party projects will come over time.

“I think the development has to in a way watch the demand of the market. Lot of people and companies moved into Dubai due to Arab problems or due to their expansion strategies. These are putting immense pressure on the residential sector. Even the office side is picking up and you cannot ignore that. Stats today are much better than two years ago.”

Infrastructure is ready

It’s the lack of infrastructure that has been one of the prime reasons affecting the acceptability of the CBD by business houses, DPG chief claims infrastructure work is almost complete.

“We have the roads, traffic signals, etc within the development while there is connectivity with the highways. It’s a matter of time in terms of finishing the infrastructure in the southern side, which will start with the beatification process.”

Though local and international property consultants have continued to refer to the high vacancy rates in Business Bay, Al Malik isn’t really concerned about them.

“When you read these reports each is different from the other. The stats aren’t consistent. I have a big doubt in the terms of their accuracy and hence I am not concerned. I won’t trust any report unless they are backed up by a valid source or issued by Real Estate Regulatory Agency, or the Dubai Statistics Department,” he stressed.